11 May 2008

Dark Fiction

There was some discussion about the Internet last week on dark fiction, its definition and boundaries. Dark fiction, especially dark fantasy and dark urban fantasy, is mostly defined in the marketplace by publishers. There's an idea, a valid one, that folks likes their urban fantasy dark. Sometimes, I have trouble figuring out what makes such work dark. To me, this means dark themes left in the wake of grim plot events; perhaps to other publishers it means that the whole story happens at night.

For instance, I've never heard George RR Martin's work called dark in marketing copy, but he tortures his characters so violently and permanently, I fail to see how it could be considered anything but. He eloquently deprives each character of that which they most covet (for instance, a bastard loses his father, a romantic never finds love, a warrior loses his hand, a rambunctious child loses the use of his legs) leading to an overarching theme best stated as: It's not darkest before dawn, but right before your worst nightmare.

For Electric Spec's purposes, we like our dark themes truly dark. I rarely see stories in my slush that push the boundaries of dark fiction. Usually it has to do with under-developed internal conflict. So many writers fail to discover that which drives their protagonist, what makes him feel alive and who he is, and then steal it within the context of external conflict. If we can identify with the protag in real crisis, then the veil of suspended disbelief starts to fall over our eyes. How the protag strives to get it back makes for the plot events that build themes. This might include horror, macabre, even tragedy, but above all, it requires deprivation. Deprivation, often with permanent consequences, is at the heart of every good dark story.

5 comments:

Good points, Betsy. I bet very few people would describe GRRM as dark. We'll have to see what happens at the end of the Song of Ice and Fire series, but I think at least a more happy than not ending will take it out of the "dark" classification--at least in my book.

Regarding e-spec submissions, I see too many dark (aka horror) submissions that the conflict is "will the protag get eaten, killed, etc. by the horrible [fill in the blank]." Some writers call pull off a great story using this set up, most most stories need something more before they grab my interest.

Good points, Betsy. I bet very few people would describe GRRM as dark. We'll have to see what happens at the end of the Song of Ice and Fire series, but I think at least a more happy than not ending will take it out of the "dark" classification--at least in my book.

Regarding e-spec submissions, I see too many dark (aka horror) submissions that the conflict is "will the protag get eaten, killed, etc. by the horrible [fill in the blank]." Some writers call pull off a great story using this set up, most most stories need something more before they grab my interest.

Good points, Betsy. I bet very few people would describe GRRM as dark. We'll have to see what happens at the end of the Song of Ice and Fire series, but I think at least a more happy than not ending will take it out of the "dark" classification--at least in my book.

Regarding e-spec submissions, I see too many dark (aka horror) submissions that the conflict is "will the protag get eaten, killed, etc. by the horrible [fill in the blank]." Some writers call pull off a great story using this set up, most most stories need something more before they grab my interest.

Well, I think GRRM's work is a great novelesque example. The things he does to his characters...I mean, they may win the war but that prince still won't get his hand back.

From our own pages: Antzack's "Fade To Black", in which the characters have to face a worse way to die. You deprive characters of one of the lies they tell themselves, it's gonna make for a dark story.